THE ASHTRAY SAID YOU WERE UP ALL NIGHT: A few weeks ago brought the sad news that Jay Bennett, formerly the secondary creative force in Wilco, had fallen on times so hard that he was suing his former band. Yesterday, via Adam, came the even grimmer news that Bennett died in his sleep early Sunday.
Bennett joined Wilco as a multi-instrumentalist (replacing Max Johnston, Michelle Shocked's brother). He quickly added a second songwriting sensibility, sugaring Tweedy's acidic tone. Unlike some famous songwriting duos (Lennon/McCartney; Tweedy/Farrar), though, the Bennett-Tweedy partnership was at its best when it was a true collaboration. You can hear Bennett in "Shot in the Arm" and "Nothingsevergonnastandinmyway (Again)," but you can hear Tweedy too, and even a song like "My Darling" (which apparently was Bennett's alone) works mainly because it's so perfect for Tweedy's voice; it sounds strange without him. I loved Summerteeth, the album for whose sound Bennett was most responsible -- heresy of heresies, I like it better than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It's too bad that Bennett and Tweedy never could bury the hatchet after their messy breakup, and it's too bad that Bennett never seemed to recover.
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